Not All Slytherins
by 630leosa
Summary: Albus Severus Potter is determined to prove that your house doesn't make a difference to who you are. Even Slytherins can be brave. Takes place directly after Always a Choice.
1. Slytherin's Celebrations

"Don't eat too much." Said the blond boy sitting next to Albus.

"What?" Albus Potter had been lost in thought, sat at the Slytherin table.

"Save some room for later."

"Why?" Albus asked, but got no reply.

Looking around the table he noticed that most of the Slytherins weren't eating much either, save for a few other first-years that obviously hadn't been told otherwise. Most of the people there were just talking.

The blond boy was now in deep conversation with a dark-haired first-year and not paying attention to Albus' questioning look. Despite not knowing what the blond meant by 'later', Albus decided to take his advice and only eat half the amount he usually would have eaten.

Deciding that he wasn't going to get an answer, he looked over at the Gryffindor table: his brother seemed to be in a eating contest with his friend from the train; Rose was tucking into what looked like her third plate of food; Victorie was chatting with Fred, Roxanne and Lucy while Molly was practicing spells with Dominique and some friends.

Albus rested his chin on his hand, watching his family having fun and messing around while he was sat on a different table, bored and alone. Had he made a mistake? Maybe he should have chosen to be in Gryffindor…

He didn't have much time to dwell on this before the tables cleared and the Headmistress stood up to address the whole school.

Albus tried to remember the full list of rules, but after the fourth one he decided to just copy them down from the sign on the caretaker's door the next day. Still, he did remember the main rules: no magic in the corridors, fighting is prohibited and 'under no circumstances are pupils to enter the forbidden forest unescorted.'

As students filed out of the Great Hall, the Prefects started to call for first-years to get them to follow the older students down to the Slytherin dungeons. The Slytherin Prefects were talking with some of the other years but Albus, along with the other first-years, couldn't hear any of the conversation.

Suddenly, one of the older pupils looked over to the new students and laughed.

"They look pretty tired, Finley. Maybe you should hold off till tomorrow?"

"Speak for yourself!" The blond boy, who had been stood near Albus, shouted back. "If these guys are too tired, they can miss the fun. I'm not missing out because of them!" The group of older students stopped to look back at him.

For the first time since they left the hall, the first-years got a good look at their Prefects, whose badges were gleaming in the torchlight. The boy had long, jet-black hair that was slicked back, and a goatee beard on his broad chin. The girl had very short blond hair with a small green bow clipped onto the side; she looked amused at the new boy's outburst.

"Spoken like a true Slytherin." She grinned. "A Malfoy, I believe?"

"So what if I am?"

"Touchy…"

"Stryker, I trust you remember your job?" The other Prefect snapped, now walking on towards the dungeons.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going." The girl mumbled, running ahead of the group and disappearing down the corridor.

"Leon left last year, so… Greg, you take over his job. Carrie, you help him." Two more Slytherins turned away from the group.

"Knuckles, Fists, you know what you're doing." Two boys saluted Finley before racing back the way they'd just came.

"About half an hour to get ready?"

All the older years nodded in agreement as they stopped near an indent in the wall.

The dark-haired Prefect said the password, 'Phineas Nigellus', and a section of the wall swung open obediently to reveal a narrow passageway to the common room. Round, green lights hung on the wall to guide the way.

The common room was a low-ceilinged dungeon-style room. It had dark grey walls and thin, silver, arched windows that revealed the dark waters of the lake outside, casting a eerie green glow into the room. A grand fireplace dominated the centre of one wall and burst into life as they entered, casting ominous shadows across the low-backed black and green leather sofas and chairs. The Prefect uttered an incantation that ignited all of the candles littered about the room on dark wooden tables and cupboards, lighting up eight wooden doors with intricate silver patterns on the frames.

Older students strode into the room after them; some headed towards the wooden doors - Albus suspected that these led to the dormitories - and some flopped down on the chairs and sofas to talk about whatever was happening tonight.

The tanned Prefect turned to look at the first-years. As he flicked his wand, the silver letters on the plaques (which Albus had failed to notice earlier) on top of all the doors jumped to the next plaque. The writing on the last tile faded and reappeared on the first, replacing the words 'Seventh Year' with 'First Year'.

"First year dorms. Second. Third. Fourth. Fifth. Sixth. Seventh. Bathrooms. There are signs on top of the doors in case you forget." The Prefect explained, pointing at each of the doors in turn. "There are plaques on your rooms as well. Any questions?"

"What time's the fun starting?" The blond boy, Malfoy, seemed to be the most outspoken of the new year group, and everyone else looked grateful for his boldness.

"In about…" Finley checked his watch, "ten minutes." He looked around the group, towards the corridor. "I'll be back in a bit. If you've got any questions, I'm sure that any of the older students will help you!" He raised his voice so that the whole room could hear him at the end of his statement. There were mixed reactions to this. Some nodded and some retreated to their rooms, but the majority just groaned and complained to their friends.

Albus headed towards the bathroom to try to flatten his hair down. He'd never really cared about how stubborn and messy it was before, but now that he saw how many of his peers had their hair slicked back, it made him feel a bit stupid.

He was distracted by the unexpected appearance of the giant squid, gliding slowly past the windows. It was strange to see it so close up. Albus smiled. What else would he see out of the underwater windows this year?

Beyond the door to the bathroom there were two doors, one marked with the word 'Wizards' and the other with 'Witches'.

As he approached the 'Wizards' door he barely had time to notice the lack of a doorhandle before it opened to reveal the blond boy who'd spoken to him at the feast, Malfoy. He nodded his acknowledgement and held the door open for Albus, who nodded in return.

Hearing the door shut behind him, he started looking around for a mirror.

The room reminded him more of a leisure centre's swimming pool than a bathroom. The room was hexagonal, with an elaborate open archway leading off to a square room. Green flames from the torches set into the walls lit the whole area. There was a large pool in the middle of the main room - obviously the Slytherins all bathed together - and there were at least _twenty_ different taps around the edge.

Cubicles lined one of the walls of the square room, with a row of sinks directly opposite. Every other sink had a mirror over it, with three full-length mirrors on the wall directly opposite the entrance.

Albus made his way towards one of the full-length mirrors. He observed that his plain black robes now had the Slytherin crest emblazoned on the breast. Smoothing out some of the creases, he then turned his attention back to his mess of black hair. It was sticking up at all sorts of odd angles.

He used water to try and smooth down the worst parts, but a stubborn section at the back refused to budge. Why did he have to have his father's damn hair? He pushed a few strands away from his emerald eyes and headed back to the common room, figuring that his hair was a lost cause.

The scene that greeted him when he arrived left him speechless.

Green and silver streamers were being flung around the room by some of the older students. Almost all of the Slytherins were back in the common room now, and many of them had changed out of their school robes. A long table had been covered in food and drinks - mostly alcoholic - and someone had conjured more, brighter, lights.

Some of the oldest students were tuning up their instruments; clearly there was going to be music soon.

"What…?" Albus stared in total surprise at his surroundings. His parents had both gone to Hogwarts, but they'd never mentioned anything like this happening on the first night!

"Slytherin 'welcome' party… Not like we need an excuse to party." Malfoy was grinning, leaning against a chair, drinking a glass of something that looked suspiciously like Firewhiskey. He had got changed into a dark green casual-dress robe, making his pale face seem to glow against the dark material.

"A welcome party?" Albus knew that he probably sounded really stupid, but he was still shocked that the 'darkest house in Hogwarts' was about to have a party when most of the castle was asleep.

"Yeah. Slytherin's held a party on the first day for _years_." The blond boy's grin slipped slightly, tilting his head to the side. "Don't Gryffindors?"

Albus shook his head quickly. How was it that no one knew what went on in Slytherin house?

"Sucks for them." Malfoy shrugged, handing Albus a glass identical to his own.

"Thanks but I… I don't drink. Sorry." Albus smiled, politely refusing the glass.

"You may have been sorted into Slytherin, Potter, but you're still a bloody Gryffindor." Albus hadn't noticed the dark girl until she spoke.

"I'm sure he'll be more Slytherin by the end of the year, Zabini." Malfoy smirked, handing her the cup that the shorter boy had just rejected. To Albus's surprise, the girl downed the whole drink in one swallow before passing the empty glass back to the grinning blond boy.

"…That was lady-like."

"Come on Scorpio, you should know me by now!" She winked, guiding him over to a group of older Slytherins, "Stryker wants to talk to…"

But their conversation was drowned out as the two boys Albus vaguely recalled as Knuckles and Fists came running into the middle of the room, shouting excitedly and carrying two huge boxes between them, and Albus couldn't hear any more. He was distracted by the scene unfolding before him, as it seemed like some sort of raid had been carried out. Surely they hadn't gone to the kitchens for yet _more_ supplies!

Knuckles and Fists couldn't have looked more different. Knuckles was a thin, muscular boy with straight, pure-white hair that brushed his shoulders, contrasting with his smoky grey dress robes… Whereas Fists was short and squat, and had greasy brown curls that hung round his neck, barely touching his deep red robes.

"Me and Fists managed to get enough pranks to last us, oh…"

"…About a term, Knux?"

"Maybe less if we play our cards right."

Both boys were grinning wildly, giving each other high fives and pushing their long hair out of their faces as they rummaged through the boxes, showing their friends what they'd got.

"Got these sent over from home," Fists grinned, gesturing to a heap of plastic-wrapped objects.

"These are some of our own. Hid them here last summer." Knuckles proudly displayed enough dusty joke items to fill the average Poltergeist's armoury for a decade. "Untested, so be careful!" He added, wagging a cautionary finger at some over-eager second-years who were edging closer to the haul. They gulped and backed away, anxious to leave this to the experts after all.

"And these. We stole these from Filch's office - " Fists smirked, flicking back his greasy, brown hair, and Knuckles carried on his sentence.

"Not sure what some of them are, but they should be fun - " The two boys burst into near-identical wolflike grins, finishing in unison:

"Filch labeled them dangerous!"

Albus sat down in an armchair as far from the centre of the room as he could get while still having a view of the boxes. Most of the items in the boxes, he wasn't surprised to find, were from 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes'.

He'd always been told how much trouble his uncle got into with his twin brother. Though Albus had hardly ever seen Uncle George actually pull any pranks, he knew that he had to have been a troublemaker to come up with half of the 'Wheezes' in his shop. Had Fred and George been like Knuckles and Fists during their time at Hogwarts?

Before long the room was in chaos. The band had started playing, small fireworks were whizzing round the room, couples were snogging and a few students had started a duel in the corridor to the dungeons. Malfoy and Zabini were dancing on a table in the middle of the room with some older students, the blond boy having found an abandoned tie and knotted it around his head. '_What was his first name again? Something to do with a scorpion',_ thought Albus.

Albus stayed in a corner for most of the night, watching the party with a plate of food and a small bottle of Butterbeer, trying to avoid being dragged into the 'fun'. The room was packed with Slytherin students of all ages and he was reluctant to make a break for the dormitories in case he got caught in the crowd and got stuck… or worse, knocked over and trampled on. It was probably best to just wait it out until the revellers decided to go to bed, Albus decided.

The small table next to him was now almost completely covered with alcohol; older students kept giving him glasses, seemingly in the hope of getting him drunk. It was strange, they didn't seem to be treating the other first-years the same way - but then again, thought Albus, the others had accepted enough drinks to make them utterly hyperactive, if not tipsy.

That was one good thing about Butterbeer: it had an almost non-existent alcohol content… which was probably how the Slytherin party organizers had got their hands on so much of it, compared to only four bottles of Firewhiskey. Of course, that was plenty: Firewhiskey was practically lethal to the uninitiated. Apart from Malfoy and Zabini, none of the first-years had even attempted drinking the stuff, sticking to Butterbeer and the occasional shot of some unfamiliar neon-blue liquid instead.

Albus settled further down into the squashy leather armchair, watching the party with a sleepy yawn. It looked like life in Slytherin house was going to be full of surprises…


	2. The Aftermath

When he woke up, it took Albus a few moments to remember where he was.

He was curled up on a leather armchair in the corner of what looked like a n underground dungeon. The Slytherin common room was now lit only by the large fireplace, which was still burning brightly, casting a warm glow on everything in its direct path. The water outside the windows was so black that for a moment he believed that he was looking out at the night sky on a cloudless night.

The small boy was sat in the dark, as the light didn't reach the corner he was sat at.

_How had he fallen asleep in the middle of a loud party like that?_

Blinking as his eyes adjusted to the light of the room, he noticed that he wasn't alone. A few more of his housemates were asleep, strewn across the sofas or the floor. Judging by the empty bottles and discarded wands, Albus suspected that this more likely due to the alcohol than tiredness.

A lone house-elf was carefully picking its way through the mess, collecting the bottles and wrappers that had been left lying around the room. It was smaller than his own house-elf, younger and - though it was sometimes hard to tell with house-elves - clearly female.

"Hello," Albus greeted her, rubbing away some of the sleep from his eyes. Although he spoke softly, his voice pierced the atmosphere like a gunshot as it echoed off the hard walls. The house-elf squealed in surprise and dropped one of the glass bottles, which broke into tiny shards as it hit the cold floor.

"Sorry!" Albus apologized, getting up to help her clean up the pieces of the broken bottle.

"Master does not need to apologize." She squeaked, quickly clearing the last of the glass to stop him from cutting himself… though Albus suspected that she didn't want him to clean up because that was the house-elves' job.

"Slinky did not mean to disturb master Potter's sleep." Her large yellow eyes opened even wider in apology. "Slinky did not realize anyone was awake, sir."

"It's fine," Albus smiled kindly. "Would you like some help?"

Slinky's eyes widened so much that Albus wouldn't have been surprised if they'd fallen from their sockets. Deep blue pools appeared in her eyes before cascading down her face.

"Master Potter is too kind." She shook her head, her huge ears slapping her in the face. "Slinky could not allow such a kind boy to clean up after his friends."

"But..."

"Slinky can only apologize for waking kind master Potter from his sleep, and allow him to continue with what he was doing in peace."

"I just…"

But before Albus could finish his sentence, there was a loud pop and she disappeared.

_BANG_

"Ow!"

Albus looked round for the sound of the noise, grinning when he finally found it.

Apparently the sound of Slinky's departure was loud enough to wake up the sleeping blond boy who, apparently forgetting where he'd fallen asleep, had fallen off the sofa nearby and onto the hard floor.

Groaning, Malfoy rolled over, turning his head to look at Albus.

"What the bloody hell was that noise?"

"Slinky."

Malfoy looked confused before closing his blurry, silver, bloodshot eyes and shook his head.

"Who?"

"House-elf."

The blond nodded his head and pointed, with his eyes still closed, at the fireplace.

"Can you get one of the pink bottles for me?"

Albus realized a small case had been placed on top of the fireplace. As he walked closer he noticed that it was full of lots of different-coloured potion bottles. Moving some pale blue ones out of the way, he grabbed a bright pink one for the blond.

"Cheers." The latter Slytherin grimaced as he sat up and emptied the bottle down his throat.

"What's that for?" Albus asked curiously, tilting his head to the side to see if there was any writing on the side of the bottle.

"Hangovers." The other boy started searching for something. "Did you see what I did with my wand?"

"It's in your hair." Albus grinned. Malfoy looked faintly ridiculous with the tie still draped around his head and the red tinge to his eyes. His hair, surprisingly, was still in pristine condition. _How was that even possible?_

"Huh? …Oh, okay." He felt for it, finding it tangled up in the tie that was still wrapped around his head. "Some party, eh?" He was now smiling, apparently the potion's effect was almost instantaneous.

"It was a little loud." Albus replied, truthfully. Parties like that weren't really his scene, but he didn't want to come across as a total killjoy so he smiled to

"Yeah, fun though. Next time you should join in." Malfoy smoothed down his hair, more out of vanity than necessity. Albus tried not to groan, now he _had _to say something.

"Uh…I'm not really one for parties." It sounded lame even as it left his mouth, but the blond just nodded in acceptance.

"Fair enough, your parents are probably too busy to throw parties anyway." Albus nodded as he started to pick up some of the litter strewn around the common room. "What are you doing?" The blond boy frowned "That's the house-elves' job."

"They shouldn't have to do everything. I'm just… helping."

"You're a strange kid, Albus, you know that?" Malfoy raised an eyebrow.

Albus frowned. He still didn't know the other boy's first name, but decided not to ask. He really should have been paying attention at the Sorting ceremony… He was sure he'd heard of the Malfoy family before, but couldn't remember where.

"Glad it's Friday." The boy in question commented glancing at his watch. "Four o'clock wouldn't be a good time to go to bed on a school night!"

"Four o'clock?" Albus's eyes widened, he was _never_ up at this time of the morning. "I'd better go unpack my things and try and get some more sleep."

"Suit yourself," Malfoy yawned, ruffling his light blond hair with one hand. "I'm gonna have a bath first, see you in the morning." With that he stood up - that is, he _tried_ to stand up, but since his legs had been locked together he fell back to the floor in an undignified heap.

"What the hell? I've been _Leg-locked_! You've got to be kidding me!" Malfoy growled, pulling himself back onto the sofa and taking out his wand, his legs completely useless in their magically locked state.

"Do you know the unlocking charm?" He snapped, his grey eyes meeting Albus's bright green through his now-messy blond hair, in a silent plea for help masked in rage.

"I know one – "

"Well, what're you waiting for, then?"

"But that's only for locks..." Albus said, pulling out his own wand and twirling it thoughtfully as he tried to remember the charm.

"My legs _are _locked!" The blond pushed his hair out of his eyes and stared at the smaller Slytherin. "C'mon, Potter, I can't stay like this all day!"

"Okay," Albus's eyes narrowed in concentration as he pointed his wand at the other boy's legs. "_Alohamora_!"

The blond's legs sprang apart with a clicking noise that sounded _exactly_ like a key turning in a lock.

"Cheers. I'll try to remember that one." He nodded, stretching his legs as he stood back up. "I'm off to have a bath. I'll see you tomorrow." And with that, he turned and headed towards the bathrooms while Albus made his way towards the first year dormitories, carefully stepping over the unconscious Slytherins dotted around the floor.

xXxXxXx

Albus had been surprised to find that through the door to the 'First-year Dormitories' was actually a long corridor. This corridor was considerably wider than the one leading to the common room and ended in a dead end. Ten plaques were spread along the wall of the corridor - five on either side - but there were no doors. A silver fountain in the shape of a serpent's head was built into the wall at the far end.

_Do Slytherins have separate bedrooms? _

Each plaque had a name on it; the boys seemed to be on the left and the girls on the right.

Walking down the left hand side of the corridor, Albus started to read the names. He was searching for his own.

'_Peter Joseph Saunders'_

'_Regis Scott Knightly'_

'_Zachary Alonzo Smith'_

'_Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy'_

…_Scorpius _Malfoy_? _So _that_ was his first name… But where had he heard that name before?

xXxXxXx

_"So that's little Scorpius. Make sure you beat him in every test…"_

_"Ron, for heaven's sake, don't try and turn them against each other before they've even started school!"_

xXxXxXx

So his uncle knew the Malfoy family? Was that a good thing? His uncle and his dad were famous _Aurors_, if they knew the Malfoys, did that mean that they were criminals? Or worse… _Death Eaters_?

Albus shook his head. The Malfoys were probably just at school with them. Maybe Scorpius's dad had beaten Ron at a test or something, and he wanted payback by getting Rose to beat Scorpius. That _did_ sound like something his uncle would do... But Albus made a mental note to ask James and his dad about it.

Moving on from Scorpius's plaque, Albus found his own name at the end of the corridor.

'_Albus Severus Potter'_

He ran his fingers across the top of the plaque, expecting to find a switch or latch or _something_ that would make the door appear. But after searching the entire thing, he realised that the plaque didn't hide any secret entrance. All it did was say his name.

Albus punched the wall in frustration, cursing under his breath as pain shot up his wrist. Why the hell did Slytherins have to be so secretive and confusing?

_…Maybe you need to use a spell?_

No. That was ridiculous, it was only the first day and no one had learned any spells yet. On the other hand, punching the wall hadn't got him very far. _What was the spell he'd used earlier?_ Albus wondered how he could have forgotten it that quickly. _Aloha_-something… He raised his wand and pointed it at the plaque.

"Aloha_Nora_?" His wand didn't react at all. Absolutely _nothing_ happened.

Albus growled and rolled up his sleeves, determined to get it right, but before he could try another spell he heard someone laughing from the end of the corridor.

"Having some trouble there, Potter?"

Albus turned sharply to find himself glaring at Malfoy, who chuckled, taunting him as he rubbed his hair dry with a small green towel. "Want some help?" He grinned.

"I don't need any help." Albus huffed.

The taller Slytherin rolled his eyes. "You're a Slytherin, so drop the Gryffindor pride already…"

Albus felt his eyes narrow as the blond walked up next to him, drawing his wand. _Was he going to attack?_

Scorpius tapped the top of his own plaque with his wand. Immediately, the outline of a door presented itself and a silver doorknob emerged from the wall in the shape of a coiled serpent.

Albus stared at it in disbelief. _You just tap the plaque with your wand? Why didn't I think of that? _His face started to burn with embarrassment, but luckily Malfoy had turned his attention to his new bedroom. With a smile, the blond turned to Albus and gave him some final advice.

"Remember to lock your door." He noticed Albus was avoiding eye contact and realized that the smaller boy obviously didn't know _how_ to lock it. "Uh, just tap where the handle should be." He added, giving Albus one last look before he shut the door. As Albus watched, the handle was the first to disappear - then the whole door melded back into the wall.

Albus followed suit, tapping his own name-plaque with his wand and frowning as his door appeared in front of him. He threw it open and slammed it shut, too frustrated to think about the other Slytherin students sleeping nearby. He didn't know why he was angry; he guessed it was just that he was embarrassed.

As instructed, he tapped the door where the handle should have been. It emerged a second later and the door disappeared. Albus hadn't even looked at his room yet, but now he turned to scrutinize it.

It was bigger than he'd expected. The walls were a dark, soft, charcoal colour and he had a small window that looked out into the lake. The marble floor was a deep green and, looking closely, Albus noticed a faint serpentine pattern winding around the edges. In one corner there was a large single bed with a black and silver duvet. His trunk was sitting at the bottom of a wardrobe; the doors were left open to reveal two long drawers at the bottom and a full-length dress mirror on one of the doors. Opposite that was a mahogany desk with an old-fashioned desk lamp and three small drawers. A matching green-seated chair was tucked neatly underneath.

Albus grinned. He had been looking forward to sharing a dormitory earlier, but this was a pretty cool bedroom.

Suddenly realizing how tired he was, he promised himself that he'd unpack in the morning and dug his pajamas out of his trunk.

He fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the soft pillow.


End file.
